


A Stranger in Hufflepuff

by ChasingAnna



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Hufflepuff Common Room, Hufflepuff Ron Weasley, Ravenclaw Hermione Granger, Short, Slytherin Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22591393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChasingAnna/pseuds/ChasingAnna
Summary: Every thought it was weird that Fred and George never noticed Peter creeping on their little brother? Well, this is what could have happened.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 124
Collections: The Veil Cycle





	A Stranger in Hufflepuff

**Author's Note:**

> This is from an unpublished WIP in which none of the trio end up in the same house. Hermione is in Ravenclaw, Ron is Hufflepuff, and Harry is Slytherin. Neville stays in Gryffindor and is tight with the group. This is the story of how Ron gets the Marauder's map. Why does Ron get it? Because Harry shouldn't have all the toys.

“Ron, who’s Peter? I don’t know a peter in our year.” Neville asked.

“No idea what you’re on about. I don’t know any Peter.”

“Peter Pettigrew, he was in your dorm last night. I heard Fred and George talking about it.”

“They’re probably having a go at you. There was no Peter in Hufflepuff last night, and Fred and George weren’t there either.”

“They seemed really worried. I really think you should…”

“Lay off it. There was no one there.”

Neville seemed to want to say more, but held his tongue.

“Listen mate,” Ron went on, voice growing more gentle, “You’ve only known then for a few months. They set up these elaborate pranks all the time. Whatever their up to, you don’t want to play along. Anyway, we need to get to Herbology. Can you help me get the hang of pruning dragonweed?”

Neville smiled. Herbology was the one class in which he truly excelled and he loved the feeling of someone actually needing his help.

It was two days before Neville again burst into the library.

“Look here, Peter’s back in your common room again.” Neville approached the trio holding a folded piece of parchment.

“I told you mate, there’s no Peter in Hufflepuff.” Ron looked down at the offered page.

“Is that a map of Hogwarts?” Harry asked, looking over his shoulder.

“Wow, that’s incredible. It’s got everything. It even shows us in the library here. Neville, where did you get this?”

“I… kind of stole it from Fred and George.”

“You’re kidding. You’ve got to put it back. You DON’T want to be on their bad side.”

“I know, but they seemed really worried about this Peter kid. I wanted to make sure you knew someone was sneaking in.”

“Well, let’s go check it out. I’ll show you guys there’s no one there.”

Ron led the way down to the kitchens, past the barrels.

“I’ve always wanted to see the other common rooms. What’s the password? Is it complicated? Does it change often? Ravenclaw changes all the time,” Hermione babbled away as they walked.

Ron looked rather embarrassed, “Not really, you just tap on this barrel.”

_Tap-tap, taptaptap_

The barrel slid out of the way revealing a circular passageway leading up towards ground level.

“That’s it? You tap on a barrel? That’s the whole of Hufflepuff’s secret entrance? You guys have the worst security,” said Harry with a friendly punch on the shoulder.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

They shuffled up to the great, round common room, which was luckily as empty as the map showed. The only person other than them that seemed to be there was the small dot labeled Peter Pettigrew in Ron’s dorm.

The four of them took a door into the boy’s wing as a painting of a plump old witch tut-tutted at Hermione. A portly wizard in the next frame shushed her, “I don’t think you need to worry about first years, Baba.” He winked at the students as they followed Ron into a bedroom with 5 low beds.

“See? No one here,” said Ron.

“Maybe they’re hiding, map, where is he?”

Harry looked down, and to his surprise, the map seemed to be answering, zooming in on a trunk and showing its lid opening.

“Ron, it says he’s hiding in your trunk.”

They advanced on the trunk, wands ready. Ron reached out, slid back the latch, cracked open the lid.

“Ahhh!” Ron yelled as a fat greying rat leapt out of the trunk and scurried out of the room. “Damn it Scabbers! Get back here.” Then, to the others, “See? No one hiding here.”

Sure enough, the trunk was empty but for piled clothes and books.

“That weird, now the map shows Peter in the common room.”

They made their way out, but the common room was still quite empty.

“The map’s a dud. Fred and George are probably playing a trick on you.”

“Hold on,” said Hermione, “ _Revelio!_ ”

For a moment, nothing happened, but then, a cabinet on the far side of the room creaked open revealing Ron’s quivering rat.

“Come here Scabbers.”

“Ron, the map says the rat IS Peter Pettigrew.”

Hearing this, the rat suddenly sprang out, scampering across the floor. Neville screamed, dropping his wand and the map and leaping onto a sofa.

“Get a grip Neville, it’s just a ra…” Ron began, but suddenly, it’s wasn’t just a rat. The creature had sprung up into a full grown man, balding and sallow. And what was worse, he had snatched up Neville’s dropped wand and was pointing it at them.

“Wands down, wands down. Please, I don’t want to hurt you,” said the man in a quavering voice.

“Who are you and why are you hiding in a kid’s bedroom?”

“You don’t understand. I had to hide. I had to. They would have killed me otherwise. But I’ve been a good pet, haven’t I? I’ve been good to you.”

“I think he’s crazy,” Hermione whispered.

“Or a pervert,” Ron whispered back, looking ill.

“No, no, but I had to hide. Don’t worry, just a little memory charm and everything can go back to how it was.”

“It’s four on one, mate.” Ron looked over at the wandless Neville, still on the sofa. “Ok, three on one. But you’re still out numbered.”

“First years won’t know any dangerous spells. Don’t worry, it will all be over soon.”

He was right, of course. What could they do? Make him float a bit? Shine a light from their wands in his eyes? 

He raised the wand and pointed at Ron

“Oblivi—” his voice was cut off as dozens of tendrils from the hanging plants seized him, coiling around his arm and plucking the wand from his grasp, plastering his mouth shut with layers of wide leaves. Vines wrapped around his waist, lifting him off the ground suspending him in the green canopy above. Tendrils reached down, dropping Neville’s wand back in his hands.

“I take it back, Hufflepuff has the best security,” Harry whispered in awe.

The painting of the wizard spoke up, “Shall I go fetch the headmaster then?”

“No need,” came a soft old voice behind them.

Dumbledore and Professor sprout strode in to the room from the entry passage.

“How could this happen? In my own house no less,” Sprout fretted.

“Now my dear, you mustn’t blame yourself. Your precautions have done an admirable job and,” he paused, taking a closer look at the man suspended above him.

“Peter, I’m happier than you know to see you in such good health. My dear Pomona,” said Dumbledore, turning once more to Professor Sprout, “Will you send an owl to the minister. It appears a proper trial is long overdue.”

Professor Sprout hurried out of the room, leaving them alone with the headmaster.

“And how, may I ask, did you find the intruder?”

Everyone sat in silence, unsure of how much to confess to. Harry looked over at Ron, hoping he would take the lead, but instead it was Neville who spoke up.

“We had a magic map that showed him.”

“And where did you get this artifact?”

Neville looked down, “I stole it, sir. From Fred and George.”

“You stole from your own house to the benefit of students from another house?”

“Yes sir.” Neville was almost in tears now, sure that the punishment for betraying his house would be severe, even if it did help catch an intruder.

“Well done. 50 points to Gryffindor.”

“I’m sor- what?”

“One should always put the school above any one house, and ones should put the welfare of the students above the school. Of course, an artefact like this could present some degree of danger in addition to its obvious utility. Any responsible teacher must of course seize it for safe keeping.”

Neville handed over the map to Dumbledore, who promptly passed it to Ron.

“Mr. Weasley, if you could make sure this gets back to where it belongs.”

“I thought you said…”

“I said you may want to avoid discovery by responsible teachers.”

Ron found his brothers in the great hall, chatting up Alicia and Angelina. Seeing the map, they immediately cut off they’re conversation and grabbed him by the elbows, shuffling him down the hall and into an abandoned classroom.

“We’ve got to ask, how did you manage to get the map?”

“I’m surprised he even managed to get into the tower.”

“I’m surprised he managed to get into Hogwarts.”

Ron looked up at Fred and George with no small amount of fear. The two could be right menaces when wronged, and stealing from them was sure to put them out, but at the same time, he didn’t want to throw Neville under the carriage by ratting him out.

“Well, the thing is,” Ron began.

“Don’t tell, never tell little brother.”

“It breaks the mystery.”

“Or at least have the decency to make up an entertaining lie.”

“What we’re trying to say is we want you to keep the map. You’ve put it to good use, and you came by it properly.”

“By which we mean you came by it dishonestly.”

“We did want to show you how it works though.”

“You’re a bit thick to figure it out on your own.”

They explained how to reveal and wipe the map, and various tricks, blocked passageways, and secrets they thought Flitch might know.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this. Feedback is always welcome.


End file.
